Born in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, Rank-Broadley was educated at Epsom School of Art (1970–74) tutored by Bruce McLean, and Slade School of Fine Art (1974–76) with Reg Butler as his Director of Studies, Michael Kenny and John Davies as tutors, where he was awarded the Boise Travelling Scholarship. He then continued his studies at the British School at Rome.

On his return to the U.K. he started as a professional sculptor specialising in low relief sculpture. He has assisted the sculptors Reg Butler and Ralph Brown RA.

In 1997 he won the Royal Mint competition for a new effigy of Elizabeth II to appear on the obverse of circulated British and some Commonwealth coinage from 1998 onward. Later that year, he also won a Royal Mint competition for his design of the Queen Mother Centennial crown coin. In 2002 his design of the reverse of a British Five Pound coin was issued. He also designed the conjoint portrait of Elizabeth II and Prince Philip on the 2007 crown coin, celebrating their sixtieth wedding anniversary. It is the third time Ian Rank-Broadley has designed both the obverse and reverse of a single coin. More recently he has been commissioned to design and model the gold kilo coin celebrating the Queen's Diamond Jubilee.[2]

A major patron was the publisher Felix Dennis for whom Rank-Broadley has sculpted the figures of Josephine Baker, Billie Holiday and "Lord Rochester, his Whore and a Monkey" for his Garden of Heroes and Villains.